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Tuesday, 10 December 2013

It was actually Flo who first introduced me to Everyday Harumi - the essential Japanese cookery book that has fast become my favourite over the last few months. The principle of this book is that if you go to one specialist shop and buy a few Japanese store cupboard essentials, then you can just shop at regular supermarkets to get the rest as you go. There you have it, Everyday Harumi - every day. I'd recommend this book as a great present for anyone who loves food let alone cooking. Nothing in it is hard to make and it opens up a whole new repertoire of flavours to your other cooking. Being a somewhat experimental chef, this is a wonderful experience for me - I have no idea what some dishes are going to taste like until they're done. It's good discipline!Your store cupboard essentials:Soy sauceDashi stockMirin rice wine vinegarSake (for cooking and for drinking)Seaweed wrapsGood sushi rice

Here are my first 7 dishes, all cooked on school nights. Some on their own, some as accompaniments to other things. The measurements I use here feed 2 hungry people or three if you have a few things. Make one or two, or if you're feeling adventurous make all 7 for a Japanese dinner party.

For the soup:50g carrots70g celery20g watercress (trimmed from the stems)20g fresh ginger1.2 litres of dashi stock (made from dashi stock powder or use Harumi's fish flake version in her opening chapter)1 chilli pepper

You start by marinating your beef. Cut thinly sliced beef into 4-5cm long strips. Place in a bowl and add the soy, sugar, mirin and sake. Marinate for ten minutes whilst you prepare your soup ingredients. Slice your carrots, ginger and celery into julienne strips. Put your dashi stock into a large saucepan and heat until it comes to a gentle boil. At this point tip the contents of the marinating beef bowl into your pan. Skim the surface of any scum that forms. Add the carrots, celery, ginger and watercress in that order and simmer for a few minutes - the vegetables should still be crispy when serving.

For the crepes*I used my go-to crepe recipe here though Harumi has her own

To serve:1 cucumber, 2 spring onions sliced into julienne and washed and driedA small packet of mixed washed salad leavesChopped basil, mint and corriander to taste

Lightly brown the pork all over in the bottom of a heavy bottomed saucepan. Remove any excess oil in the pan with kitchen paper when done. Add the soy sauce,sake and sugar before pouring over just enough water to cover the pok. Add the stem of the leek and the ginger. Bring this mixture to the boil and then turn down to simmer, covering the pan with a dropped foil lid (see photos below for how to fashion yours).

Simmer for about 1 hour, skimming the surface regularly for scum - this is actually the pork fat rising to the surface so you're left with leaner meat. After 45 minutes of the hour are up, add the boiled eggs so that the surface has time to take on the colour of the broth but they don't over cook - they should end up golden brown. In your last 15 minutes, cook your crepes using the recipe of your choice.

When done, remove the pork and allow to rest before thinly slicing. Cut your eggs in half and arrange all the ingredients out on a table for guests to assemble for yourselves.

Dish 4: Deep Fried Chicken Thighs in a Leek Sauce250g boneless chicken thighs - skin on1/2 tbs soy sauce1/2 tbs sakea mixture of flour and polenta to coat your chicken (Harumi uses potato starch but I struggled to find this as easily)sunflower oil1/2 leek50ml soy sauce1/2 tbs sake15ml rice vinegar1/2 tbs caster sugar1/2 sunflower oil1/2 red chilli no seeds roughly choppedStart by preparing your leek sauce. Stab your leek allover to tenderise it for chopping, then chop it as finely as you can. Mix together the soy sauce, sake, rice vinegar and sugar in a bowl. Lightly saute the leek and chilli in a frying pan - add the liquid and then when the sugar has dissolved, take it off the heat.

Marinade the chicken in the soy sauce and sake for 5 minutes. In the meantime, heat your oil. When the oil is hot, take each piece of chicken, coat it thoroughly and lower it into the pan. Allow to deep fry for at least 6 minutes, ensuring every piece is fully submerged. Remove the chicken and place on a wad of kitchen roll to remove the surface oil. Plate up or put into a serving bowl and pour the leek sauce over the top whist still steaming hot to serve.

Start by making your bowl of Nanbanzuke sauce. You can serve your dish from this so use a serving bowl if deisred. Mix together your sauce ingredients and add salt as you wish. Chop the celery, carrots and ginger into julienne strips then finely slice both the chilli and the onion. Set aside.

Prepare the salmon by heating a few inches of oil in a saucepan - enough to cover your fish when deep frying. Then take each piece of fish and coat lightly in flour. When the oil is hot enough, drop the salmon pieces in, taking care not to splash. Allow these to deep fry for a few minutes until crispy on the outside but still a little underdone inside. Remove with a slotted spoon to drain excess oil, dab with kitchen paper if needs be, then place immediately into your nambanzuke sauce to marinade. Add the celery, carrot, ginger, chilli and thinly sliced lime to your bowl, cover and allow to marinate for at least half an hour before serving.

Place your sesame seeds into a pestle and mortar (or a food processor if you don't have one). Grind until a rough paste forms. Then add the rest of your ingredients and stir well.

Steam your green beans until a little crispy but cooked through, remove from the heat, run under cold water and pat dry. Put into a serving bowl and dress.

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Thursday, 5 December 2013

Hedonism wines is not just your average wine merchant, it was
set up by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Chichvarkin to be the very best alcohol retail experience in the world. Ambitious, but given the multi
million pound investment, not all that unreasonable. A lot of that investment has gone on building up a rare and eclectic collection of over 5,500 wines after having poached Harrods longstanding buyer. This includes over 600 wines for under £30, and you can always taste some of the much more expensive bottles from their automatic tasting
machines.

Now I don't really know all that much about wine, I can tell you what I taste, whether or not I like it, and why, but as far as the grape, region or vintage is concerned, my guess is as good as yours. Given the incredible collection of wine, premium environment and highly qualified somelier staff, I was both delighted and surprised to find that there was none of the stuffiness you might expect. The staff there are genuinely fantastic: Orsi from Budapest who chatted away to us about her discovery of fine wine while working on a cruise ship, and let us know all about the wines we were trying. You can formally hire a sommelier for somewhere between £100 and £200 an hour (I can’t quite remember the quote) but if you are happy with a less hands on approach, it seems that any of the staff there are happy to answer your questions.

The tasting room is really nicely done too. The cool 17-degree cellar lined by magisterial 18litre bottles is warmed by Chalet-style fubsy white blankets and huge hand-carved, trunk-like seats. The rest of the shop is equally impressive: as you go down stairs, a chandelier made up of 125 hand blown Reidel glasses hangs above you.

This makes it a really great way to spend an hour or two
with friends. I went and spent £20 and on 25ml of 8 or so different wines from a rather rough and unpleasant Gaia Thalassitis Assyrtik from 2012 at £19.80 a bottle to an incredibly smoky, earthy, blackberryish Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Mon Aieul Pierre, 2001 at £99.60 a bottle. My favourite of the evening was a lightly oaked, sweet, nutty and autumnal Hermitage Blanc ex Voto Guigal, 2006 at £124.40 a bottle. I would never usually spend that much on a bottle so it was lovely to be able to taste what I am otherwise missing!

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Thursday, 28 November 2013

Every now and then, you taste a new taste. It's a bit like what you imagine it would feel like to see a new colour - it opens up your tastebuds and your imagination. These moments are special because they are so rare. I had one of them the first time I tasted Persian cooking with pomegranate molasses. Pomegranate molasses are a transformative ingredient in savoury cooking but are also great in deserts - with a large bowl of Greek yoghurt or with champagne as an aperitif.

I recently had a large family meal to cook for my grandmother's birthday and having just bought a new bottle of the stuff from a Comptoir Lebanais http://www.lecomptoir.co.uk/shop.html I decided to cook Persian style for the event. This recipe is adapted from the traditional late autumn Persian dish done the same way but with walnuts. I find that the pistachio adds a more luxurious texture and taste to the stew but you can use either.

This dish serves 8 people

Ingredients:

12 Skinless, boned chicken thighs

2 large red onions finely chopped

2 large aubergines roughly chopped

2 cups of chicken stock

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp hot paprika

100g shelled pistachios

7tbsp pomegranate molasses

2 tpsb olive oil

Method:

Pan roast your pistachios for 1-2 minutes until you can smell the skin cooking and they start to brown a little - stir all the while. Then leave them to cool. Whilst you wait for the pistachios to cool, finely chop your onion and sauté it with the olive oil in the bottom of a large heavy based saucepan. When the onions are done, set aside, blend your pistachio until it forms a fine soft powder. Add your chicken and your aubergine to the pan with the onion in it. Sprinkle the paprika on top, and brown all over. Once browned, pour in your pistachio closely followed by the chicken stock and molasses. Bring to the boil, then turn down low and allow to simmer for an hour - if you have longer an hour and a half will make a richer flavour and more succulent chicken.

Wilt your spinach by placing in a large saucepan with a little water, stirring constantly until it is all wilted. Then remove and place in kitchen roll to remove excess water.

Grate your cucumber as you would a carrot, salt the grated cucumber and place in kitchen roll too

Leave for at least 1/2 hour, regularly squeezing the moisture out of both the spinach and the cucumber until it is as dry as possible. When the spinach is dry, place the mint on top and finely this mixture with a knife.

Take your garlic clove, peel and crush it with the side of a knife, then place the malton salt on top and scrape the side of the knife over the garlic, applying pressure until you have a garlic pulp.

I like to saute my garlic so that it's less indigestible, but if you're a big raw garlic fan, use as it is.

When your garlic is prepared and your greens are dry enough, add to the yogurt in a large bowl and mix. Add a lot of freshly ground black pepper to taste and a little lime juice (1/4 will do it)

I served my dish with a watercress side salad with a light mustard vinaigrette. I also cheated and heated up some ready made naan rather than making rice, as it goes much better with the textures of the stew and the yogurt dish.

Fresh pomegranate seeds are a nice touch for serving too and really brighten the table up.

For desert, Flo made petit fours: home made marshmallows, macaroons, lemon and poppyseed miniature sponges and raspberries. These were absolutely incredible but will make a Flo blog post for another time.